EYEconsider Labour peer Jean Corston’s claim that there is indisputable evidence that the justice system treats women more harshly.

Whatever you think of Phillip Davies or the Tories, the only thing more cringe inducing than the overt political bias of Jamie Grieson’s premeditated puff piece was the inevitable fact that not one person rushing to outrage on social media was remotely interested in discussing why they thought Davies was on the wrong side of a debate about inequalities in criminal justice outcomes.

This may have been in response to various comments posted below the line of his original article pointing out that Davies’ 45 minute lecture it referenced actually appeared to outline quite a lot of supporting evidence.

Or perhaps someone was catching on to the possibility that a relatively small number of predominately white middle class, well connected #feministzelots posting pictures of themselves smugly having their cake and eating it (in an effort to ‘speak truth to power) might be be coming across as a tad smug and ironic (outside of their immediate echo chamber obviously).

“I know Philip Davies and obviously he’s entitled to his opinion, but I just want some evidence. If his evidence is there’s only 4,000 women in prison and 80,000 men, that doesn’t tell you that the courts are soft on women. Baroness Corston

In order to support this preferred patriarchal perspective, the former chair of the parliamentary Labour party provided one anecdotal example, involving a life sentence for a first offense.

Confusingly she then attempted to undermine the reams of quantitative data available from the Ministry Of Justice by pointing out that ‘when a judge or magistrate hands down sentence they must consider a range of factors including harm caused, culpability and factors increasing or decreasing the seriousness of the crime‘.

Sentencers must be made aware of the differential impact sentencing decisions have on women and men including the impact of imprisonment on mental and emotional well being; and the disproportionate impact that incarceration has on offenders who have caring responsibilities if they are imprisoned a long distance from home. Equal Treatment Bench Book

And as various people have been pointing out you don’t have to go further than the pages of the Guardian to find the evidence that Baroness Corston seems to be overwhelmingly determined to ignore in her very one sided assessment.

“29% of male first-time offenders were sentenced to custody. For women, that figure was 17” https://t.co/l1T6471pwe

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About the author

EYEisBloke is an equality champion who blogs about a phenomenon called 'the Glass Blind Spot' - which is where someone consciously or unconsciously ignores information relevant to a discussion about equality and social justice because it would undermine or distract from their preferred narrative.